The+Universe

Lyford Rome rome@rohan.sdsu.edu || ||
 * || =Galaxy Physics=

Overview
This game will teach concepts of physics to middle and high school students. Players will create a character who cruises the galaxy in a spaceship, exploring and interacting. Sub games challenge the learner and reward progress with points that allow the player to upgrade his or her spaceship and reach farther in the galaxy. The sub games would be embedded into the actual gameplay, teaching concepts of gravity, mass and force, as well as the scientific method, nuclear, electromagnetism and cosmology.

Players will fly their spaceship from star system to star system, each themed with a challenge aligned with the California Science Framework.

Instructional Objective
What will the learners learn from this game (or more likely, what learning objectives are being reinforced by this game)? If it's for school use, where does it fit into the curriculum? (You can find links to curricular frameworks [|here]).

Learners
Who is the game designed for? Describe them in terms of their age, grade level, affinity towards the subject matter, and anything special about them that the reader should know.

Context of Use
Where would your game be used? At home? At school? In a training facility? If in a school, what accomodations would you need to make to do it in a typical classroom? Is it designed to be played more than once? What would happen prior to the game? What would happen after it? Would it be used within a formal instructional setting or informally elsewhere? Would it be used by individuals or groups? Could it be used in a one-computer classroom by a group? Is it internet-savvy? Multiplayer? Is the game designed to be replayed multiple times? How long would a single playing of the game take? What platform(s) will it be developed for?

Scope
How big will this game be? About how much time will it take to play? What content is specifically included? Excluded? For an adventure game, tell how many "rooms" and objects there will be. For a quiz game, how many questions and categories. For a branching story, how many screens and how many main branches.

Object of the Game
What's the game goal? What's the end state that players are striving for (e.g., to be the first to reach the Finish square, or to be the first to reach 100 points.)

Competing Products
What's out there that covers the same content as this game? How is your game similar to others? How is it different and better? (You can check [|Downloads.com] for shareware and freeware competitors, the [|Games Domain] search engine for commercial products, and the [|Educational Resources catalog] for school-oriented titles

Design Details
This is the heart of the document. It will serve as a blueprint for those who actually develop the game. The more specific you can be here, the less backtracking and expensive confusion there will be later. //Universal Elements// Describe and provide illustrations of the overall look and feel of the game. What style of graphics and sounds will be used? Cartoonish? Photorealistic? Wacky? Business-like? Colorful? Muted? //Specific Elements// The specifics from this point on will vary depending on the format of game that you're using. For adventure games, provide: For branching stories, provide: For quiz games, provide: For arcade games, provide: For simulations, provide: //Technical Elements// Describe the:
 * an overall map of the simulated world, showing its boundaries and major features
 * a description of the role the learner is playing while moving through the world
 * a description of the overall game goal the learner is trying to achieve
 * a flowchart showing all possible rooms and allowable moves
 * a decription of the obstacles that will challenge the learner
 * a list of all prizes or artifacts and their locations
 * profiles of all non-player characters
 * a description of the scoring system, if any
 * a sequence of sample screens showing how one moves and acts on the game
 * a flowchart of all major branches in the game
 * a description of the events within each of the major branches including the entry decision that starts the branch
 * sample screens showing a sequence of the story
 * a character dictionary describing the appearance, background, motivation, and other characteristics of everyone who appears in the story
 * a description of the categorization scheme used for questions
 * sample questions within each category showing questions at each level of difficulty
 * sample screens showing the sequence of question asking, learner input, and feedback
 * sample screens showing introductory material, high score pages, etc.
 * a description of the scoring system to be used
 * a description of the categorization scheme used for sprites moving on the screen
 * sample images within each category showing sprites at each level of difficulty
 * sample screens showing the sequence of animation, learner input, and consequences
 * sample screens showing introductory material, high score pages, etc.
 * a description of all user-manipulable variables in the game
 * a description of all output variables displayed
 * a description of the initial or default state of all variables
 * sample screens showing a sequence of situation, learner input, and result
 * sample screens showing introductory material, high score pages, etc.
 * a description of the mathematical and logical relationships that link the input variables and output variables (i.e., the underlying model of the simulation).
 * specific software needed to author the game
 * platform(s) the game would be developed for
 * file formats of graphics and sounds
 * method to accommodate multiple platforms (if that's being done)
 * data structures for any files used to save the game state

Motivational Issues
Describe how the game engages the learner. How does it make use of curiosity, challenge, control, fantasy, competition, cooperation, etc.? (No one game will do all of these things, so focus on the particular strengths of this particular game.) Make specific reference to the theoretical readings associated with this course.

Design Process
Describe the process you went through in putting the game together. What were your first thoughts? How did you enhance your ideas? What ideas did you consider and reject (and why?). How did you gather background information? What did you do to see if there are similar games out there? What did you do to get feedback on the idea? How did you flesh out the game to the point of having a playable prototype? How did you gather feedback from that? What lessons did you learn from this that you'll carry to your next game design project?